Tree-lined Mar Vista Street is one of the prettiest streets in Whittier.

But following a Sept. 20 traffic accident that claimed the life of a 21-year-old Whittier woman, some people are saying Mar Vista has become too dangerous.

“She hit this damn thing,” Mar Vista resident Reynaldo Macias says, pointing out the black marks on the curb of a median on Mar Vista near York Avenue, where 21-year-old Britney Reyes died.

“A 21-year-old shouldn’t be dead because you take an already narrow street and narrow it more with that meridian,” said Macias, who has lived on Mar Vista for eight years.

He was the second person on the scene that morning and was with Reyes when she died.

“We’re not supposed to bury our kids,” he said.

Ironically, Macias’ son, Daniel, 23, was a close friend of Britney Reyes.

Mar Vista in Whittier, between College and Colima Road, is a street that seems in some places out of step with modern commuting. Its 20 mile-per-hour advisory, not regulatory, speed signs warn drivers to slow down as they navigate around medians in the road. And traffic on the narrow two-lane street can be heavy at times, as many motorists use Mar Vista as a shortcut through the city and to avoid the congestion on other streets such as Whittier Boulevard.

Medians and roadside planters were built in an effort to slow traffic. But the traffic islands have become controversial.

“It’s unsafe design to put obstacles in the road where people might run into them,” said Michael L. Zieman, a mechanical engineer. “That’s exactly what they’ve done,” he said, noting that he is not a traffic engineer.

“I am a professional engineer, a lifelong resident of Whittier and regularly travel Mar Vista, where this woman was killed,” he said. “I have always felt that these so-called speed islands and curbs, which protrude into the normal traffic lanes, are a serious safety hazard,” said Zieman, president of RADCO, a Long Beach firm that inspects designs for factory built structures. “In many cases they are not effective at reducing traffic speeds” he said.

“Only a month ago, I witnessed another island-curb-caused accident on Mar Vista a little farther east from where this woman was killed.”

The median planters between York Avenue and Enramada Avenue were built in 1998 following public input in those neighborhoods concerning traffic, speeds and other factors in 1996, Assistant Director of Public Works Chris Magdosku said in a statement responding to inquiries about Mar Vista.

About 14,000 vehicles use the street daily, a volume level that has been constant for 16years, according to Public Works. There have been nine accidents at York and Mar Vista in the past five years, with causes ranging from improper turning, speeding and DUI.

David Pelser, director of pubic works, said the department has not recommended any changes to existing conditions based on current traffic accident history on Mar Vista.

However, “that’s a moving target,” he said, and the finding of the police investigation of the Sept. 20 accident could change that.

City Councilwoman Cathy Warner, who lives on the east side near Mar Vista, said she would have to see several studies, by both the city and an independent traffic engineer, before she could make a determination about safety on Mar Vista.

No investigation has been requested, although a speaker at the council’s Sept. 25 meeting did express concerns.

Council members cannot respond to public comments on subjects that are not on the agenda, she said.

“We can’t comment, but it is noted,” she said.

The city’s 2001 (revised in 2005) “Traffic Calming Policy: A Procedural Guide to Neighborhood Traffic Management” states that between 1995 and 1998 seven “techniques” were incorporated on Mar Vista between College and Colima.

They included modified signal timing, median islands construction, 32 mph “educational signs,” constructing chicanes or planters on the sides of the road to divert and slow traffic, right turn metering and left turn pockets.

According to the report, accidents fell by 41 percent over a three-year period.

Police are continuing their investigation of the fatal Sept.20 accident. The initial investigation indicated that the vehicle was westbound on Mar Vista when it struck the center median, the driver lost control, and the car hit a tree on the south side of the road.

Macias heard the crash from his bedroom window, which is just above Mar Vista, and rushed out to the scene.

“It’s dark. Look where they advise you to slow down. Right when you get to it,” he said one evening several days after the crash, standing across the street from the crash site. “Look at the curb,” he said, pointing to the black tire marks left on the curb of the median. “Every weekend it’s the same.”

Macias says one accident a month occurs at the site.

“They can tell people nine accidents in five years, and I’ve been living here for eight years, and I can tell them it’s a damn lie.”

Reyes’ mother and grandfather declined to comment for this story.

The accident happened at about 4:15 a.m., according to the police report.

“Officers and firefighters discovered a solo occupant (female driver) unconscious and bleeding profusely behind the wheel of the car. Shortly after their arrival, the L.A. County Fire Department pronounced the female deceased at the scene,” the report said.

Macias said he and another man at the scene said a prayer when they covered her.

On a small patch of ground on the south side of Mar Vista at York Avenue, a cluster of long-extinguished vigil candles still stand sentinel over a shrine left by friends of Britney Reyes.

A heart shaped “I love you” balloon is muddy and deflated, and flowers hung on an ivy-covered cinder-block wall have long ago turned brown and withered.

But one picture leaning against a wall seems to have defied time and the elements.

It’s pretty, brown-eyed Britney Reyes, looking out on Mar Vista with a big smile, the whole world still ahead of her.